The period now before us is marked by the great work of the Collings, who next to Bakewell did most to improve the cattle of the United Kingdom.  Charles Colling was born in 1751, and the scene of his famous labours was Ketton near Darlington.  He had learnt from Bakewell the all-importance of quality in cattle, and determined to improve the local Shorthorn breed near his own home, which had been described in 1744 as ’the most profitable beasts for the dairyman, butcher, and grazier, with their wide bags, short horns, and large bodies.’  He was to make these ‘profitable beasts’ the best all-round cattle in the world, and to succeed where George Culley had failed.  The first bull of merit he possessed was ’Hubback’,[511] described as a little yellow, red, and white five-year-old, which was mated with cows afterwards to be famous, named Duchess, Daisy, Cherry, and Lady Maynard.  At first Colling was against in-breeding, and not until 1793 did he adopt it, more by accident than intention, but the experiment being successful he became an enthusiast.  The experiment was the putting of Phoenix to Lord Bolingbroke, who was both her half-brother and her nephew, and the result was the famous Favourite.  A young farmer who saw Favourite and his sister at Darlington in 1799, was so struck by them that he paid Colling the first 100 guineas ever given for a Shorthorn cow.[512]

One of Hubback’s daughters had in 1795, by Favourite, a roan calf which grew to be the celebrated Durham Ox, which at five and a half years weighed 3,024 lb., and was sold for L140.  It was sold again for L250, the second purchaser refusing L2,000 for it, and taking it round England on show made a profitable business out of it, in one day in London making L97.  A still more famous animal was the bull Comet, born 1804, which at the great sale in 1810 fetched 1,000 guineas.  This bull was the crowning triumph of Colling’s career and the result of very close breeding, being described as the best bull ever seen, with a fine masculine head, broad and deep chest, shoulders well laid back, loins good, hind-quarters long, straight and well packed, thighs thick, with nice straight hocks and hind legs.  Perhaps Colling thought he had pursued in-and-in breeding too far, at all events in 1810 he dispersed his famous herd.  The sale was held at a most propitious time, for the Durham Ox had advertised the name of Colling far and wide, and owing to the war prices were very high.  Comet fetched 1,000 guineas, and the other forty-seven lots averaged L151 8s. 5d., an unheard-of sale, yet all the auctioneer got was 5 guineas, much of the work of the sale falling on the owner, and the former sold the stock with a sand-glass.

After the sale at Ketton, Brampton, the farm of Charles’s brother Robert, became the centre of interest to the Shorthorn world.  Robert obtained excellent prices for his stock, five daughters of his famous bull George fetching 200 guineas each.  Probably he, like his brother, pursued in-and-in breeding too far, and in 1818 there was another great sale; but war-prices had gone and agriculture was depressed, so that the cattle fetched less than at Ketton, but still averaged L128 14s. 9d. for 61 lots, and 22 rams averaged L39 6s. 4d.  Robert died in 1820, his brother in 1836.